Biography

Formed: 2002 in East London, England

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Years Active: '00s

Roll Deep were the preeminent, pioneering grime crew before the genre was even called grime. The East London blend of hip-hop and techy electronic music — in which the beat bounces around like it's got the hiccups and the rhymes skitter erratically over the top — evolved out of the U.K. garage rap scene, inspiring critic Simon Reynolds to dub it gabba-gangsta-garage. The group's informal lead MC and producer, Wiley, preferred to call his sound "eski," but he was doomed to be dubbed "the...